A perspective drawing which will give you a front, side realistic view of the exterior will help you decide, of course the most crucial and impactful part of an exterior is in the window style and size. Things like eaves, overhangs, entry design and symmetry all will change a basic floor plan, with so many ways to differentiate one common facade from another. Google sketch up will allow you to simply create this.

I think the task of transforming homes like these is an exciting challenge! If your budget is not huge then timber trimmings and paint can make a huge difference here. You could paint the brick, or better still clad it with weatherboard to soften the house, but if the budget does not allow the whole house to be clad just do the front and go around the corners by about a meter and then paint the bricks at the sides and back to match. You definitely need a verandah across the front, with the steps centred and going straight down to meet the gate - this will transform the facade and is worth spending the money on. If you dont want to change the windows consider framing them with timber to make them look larger and replace the front door with something nicer, luckily your door is centred with same size windows either side. Id suggest replacing the fence with a picket fence and matching gates to hide the concrete driveway and then screen off the long side driveway and camouflage the overhang with a picket gate to match. Paint choices here are really important, it looks like your neighbours homes are beige or grey? Consider painting the house a classic colour such as dusky blue or sage combined with light trimmings to make yours stand out from the surrounding neutral homes (ive done a couple of quick mock-ups below as examples) You need some plants but your front yard is not large so a single, low height feature tree with mulch or pebbles instead of lawn would look wonderful plus a couple of strategically placed pots. Good luck!

Thanks @asorbak! The Double Hung windows on the left are from the Essential range, and the Louver windows on the right are from the Signature range. With the design symmetry of our products, you're able to mix and match from our Essential, Signature and Commercial range. Would love to see the images once you're done!

I was just looking over all the advice and the drawings that have been done for me showing how paint would look in various places. Thank you so much everyone for the time and help that you have given me - plus your honest opinions. I have decided that over the long term, all of the raw timber on the walls will go, but I may also remove a section of the wall joining kitchen to loungeroom. I am not sure whether it will be removed and sheeted or whether it will be sheeted over in some places, and painted in others. What I decide is going to determine what the architraves and window frames look like, because to sheet over the timber means that the current architraves will not be thick (deep) enough. A carpenter has already suggested just using painted MDF due to the difficulty in getting timber architraves at present and their cost. These are decisions that I am not ready to make yet. I have no idea whether it would be best to keep timber window frames and door frames or whether to just have white. Your opinion on this would be appreciated too. For now, the lounge room and entry wall will be painted. The undercoat will start to tell me whether all white or black and white is better. I have a painter coming tomorrow to start. I will be doing some painting too, but I know he will prepare it a lot better than me.